What should I download?

We advise you which software and apps to use

What’s the best free alternative to Photoshop Elements? Q

I’ve used Photoshop Elements 12 for over 10 years, so it’s getting a bit long in the tooth. Is there a current free alternative? I’d like a tool that can eliminate converging verticals. Can only Photoshop do this? Rod Turner

A

Converging verticals is a recurring problem for photographers. They appear in photos shot at an extreme angle, such as when looking up at the top of a tall building, where its edges appear to get closer as they recede. Expensive tilt-shift lenses can help or – as you seem to have been doing for the past decade – you can edit images using a tool such as Photoshop Elements.

One of the best free alternatives is GIMP (www.gimp.org). Open your image in GIMP and press Shift+p to switch to the Perspective tool. Now hover your cursor over a corner of your image and you’ll see that it transforms into a triangle.

Click and hold on any corner where a line within the image is converging towards the centre, then drag it diagonally out. For example, if the top-left and top-right corners of the building are converging, drag these away from the centre. You can see what we mean in the screenshot below.

If you can’t drag the selected corners out, you might need to drag the opposite corners – where the lines of the building appear to be widening out – in towards the centre. If this leaves blank spaces in the frame, use the clone tool (press C) to copy detail from elsewhere.

How can I get new wallpaper every day? Q

I’m bored of looking at the same old wallpaper on my PC desktop every day. Can you recommend a program like my screensaver to show a fresh wallpaper every day? Peter Lang

A

Windows can do this for you. First, place the photos you want to use in a folder. Now right-click your desktop, then click Personalise, followed by Background. Choose ‘Slideshow’ in the menu within the ‘Personalise your background’ section. Next, click Browse and select the folder containing your images. Set the menu beside ‘Change picture every’ to ‘1 day’.

For more variety, install Microsoft’s Bing Wallpaper (www. snipca.com/45441), which downloads a new image from Bing every day and sets it as your wallpaper. Once installed, Bing Wallpaper lives in your System Tray. Click its icon ( 1 in our screenshot) for a description of the current wallpaper 2 . If you don’t like it, click the Previous button 3 to find earlier examples.

Can I transcribe Audacity files into text? Q

Our historical-interest group is recording the past experiences of older local villagers. These are recorded as Audacity files. Can you suggest software to transcribe them into text files?

Campbell Craig

A

We’d certainly recommend Otter.ai (https://otter.ai – see page 48), which transcribes up to 300 minutes of audio a month for free. However, if you’re a Microsoft 365 subscriber, it’s also worth checking out the transcription tools built into the browser-based version of Word.

First, export your Audacity files as .wav, .mp4, .m4a, or .mp3 format, then log in at www.office.com. Now create a new Word document and, once it opens, click the down arrow to the right of Dictate. Select ‘Transcribe’ in the menu ( 1 in our screenshot), then click ‘Upload audio’ 2 and navigate to the audio file stored on your computer. Word will import it and, after transcribing the speech, display the results in the sidebar. Click ‘Add to document’ to import them.

Email us your questions at letters@computeractive.co.uk